Adwords

Making the most out of your Google AdWords account

Introduction By using Google AdWords, you’ve chosen one of the most compelling advertising media available. This ad program uses less to make more: with just 95 characters per ad, you get the lowest cost per lead of any direct marketing medium available. TM

We have studied thousands of AdWords campaigns at Google. This workbook, The Maximum Effect, is a compilation of the best tips and examples you can use to make the most of those 95 characters for your business. We hope you find it useful enough to keep handy as you develop your Google AdWords campaigns. The Google Team

Table of Contents Six ways to maximize your AdWords campaign

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Chapter 1 – Setting Goals Setting Goals Worksheet

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Chapter 2 – Selecting Keywords A four-step process Step 1: Expand Step 2: Target Step 3: Scrub Step 4: Group Selecting Keywords Worksheet

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Chapter 3 – Developing Ads Focus on Benefits Shape ads around keywords Get action Observe AdWords editorial guidelines Developing Ads Worksheet

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Chapter 4 – Creating Destinations Creating Destinations Worksheet

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Chapter 5 – Tracking Results Tracking Results Worksheet

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Chapter 6 – Optimizing Again Optimizing Again Worksheet

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How do you make these characters sell?

Six ways to maximize AdWords Once you’ve gotten started on Google AdWords, there are six activities that require your attention to improve your ad performance even more over time. They are: • Setting Goals • Selecting Keywords • Developing Ads

• Creating Destinations • Tracking Results • Optimizing Again

This workbook discusses and gives examples about how to make the most of each of these areas for the best possible results.

Meet WorldBites Rather than cite abstractions about the mechanics of AdWords, we illustrate the fine points throughout this workbook based on a composite of thousands of our advertising customers. We call this example WorldBites Corp. While fictional, WorldBites characterizes virtually all of the business challenges our real-world customers face. Even without an actual company called WorldBites, we hope you find these tips and examples useful to your own business. WorldBites Corp. is a food company (again, fictional) with three distinctive business units. The corporation is about to launch a new Google AdWords program that must meet marketing goals for all three: • WorldBites@Work provides corporate catering services in several cities • WorldBites Recipes offers recipes that members can download • WorldBites.com is an e-commerce site that ships a wide variety of international and ethnic foods to homes and businesses Since each division has a different market, and different targets, the first step is to set goals for each campaign.

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chapter 1

Setting Goals Every company has to set its business and marketing goals internally, which are then translated in advertising campaigns. Here are the sorts of questions you’ll want to consider in order to set campaign goals, along with the responses a customer like WorldBites would give. 1. How much do you want to invest in keyword advertising? We want to spend roughly the same as last year, about $20,000 a month for all campaigns combined. 2. What kind of results would be best: generating leads,1 increasing traffic or conversion2 to sales, lowering your cost-per-acquisition, or something else? We want people to think of WorldBites first when they’re looking for ethnic food recipes, catering, or ordering ethnic and exotic food online. • WorldBites@Work wants to raise awareness of its services, since very few people in target cities know about them. Campaign goal: lower the cost-peracquisition by 30 percent (to under $82 each). • WorldBites Recipes wants to increase traffic so it can sell more advertising on the site. Campaign goal: 1,000 people download recipes in a designated 14-day period. • WorldBites.com wants online orders to be more profitable. Campaign goal: 50 new customers per month, and 30 haggis orders for Robert Burns’ birthday.3 3. What would you consider a good ROI (return on investment)4 on your advertising spend? WorldBites wants to average 300 percent ROI. By putting specific numbers to each key objective, you can objectively measure your success, and tailor the advertising to meet or exceed your goals. With these WorldBites goals in hand, the next step is to begin choosing keywords.

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Leads consist of contact information (email, phone, address) for those people who visit your site based on seeing your ad. Qualified leads are those who are likely to fit the profile of your best customers, or have taken additional action, such as signing up for a newsletter or otherwise asking for followup. 1

Conversion is a measure of people who have taken the next action step you desire - buying, registering, or subscribing, for example. 2

Celebrated Scottish poet and songwriter Robert Burns was born in Ayr, Scotland in 1759. The annual commemoration of his birth features the Scottish national dish, a steaming haggis – a pudding of sheep organs, oatmeal and savory spices. 3

ROI (Return on Investment) The revenue a company generates from an investment such as an advertising program. ROI is based on tangible benefits (bottom-line increases in revenue or decreases in expense). 4

AdWords Account Basics • Your Account is divided into separate Campaigns • Campaigns are divided into Ad Groups • Ad Groups are comprised of Keywords • Keywords trigger your ad when a user searches for them on Google or our partner sites; the ad text is called Creative • All Keywords within an Ad Group must run on the same Creative • You can run multiple Creatives per Ad Group

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Worksheet: Setting Goals Being as specific as possible, consider your answers to these questions. Refer to the WorldBites goals on pg. 2 for ideas on setting your own.

Define what you do. A. What does your company (or your division) do? If you work with different product lines, list all of them.

B. Who’s the primary audience (target market) for your products and services? List all of them.

C. What are you trying to sell or promote? What do you want people to do (buy, visit, download, subscribe)? Be specific for each product’s call to action.

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Define your goals for this program. A. How much does your company want to invest? Be specific.

B. What kind of results would be best for your company or division? List all of them. Be very specific; attach measurable results (hard numbers) to each one.

C. What would you consider a good return on your investment? If the ROI differs between divisions, list each one.

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chapter 2

Selecting Keywords After establishing goals for your AdWords campaign, it’s time to go through four steps to create the best possible keyword strategy. These are: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Expand your keyword list to include as many relevant words as possible Target the keyword list by using keyword matching options Scrub – or refine – the keyword list Group the keywords in thematic ad clusters

Ad Groups are how you organize your keywords. Keywords in the same Ad Group trigger the same ad text, or creative. It’s best to group your keywords thematically so you can target ads toward each theme, product line, or promotion. Creatives, plural, are the different executions of your ad (not the people who create them). Every word change – and each one can be critical – is a different creative. It’s typical to run two to four creatives per Ad Group. Campaigns are how you organize your Ad Groups. You can create different campaigns for each product line, each major collection of Ad Groups, each geographic region, or any other structure that works for any specific product or promotion. The Account level is where you manage everything, including contact information and billing. It also contains all of your campaigns, which contain all of your Ad Groups, which contain all of your keywords and creatives.

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Step 1: Expand First, review your site content to make a note of which keywords – word combinations and phrases – describe the main categories of your business. In the case of WorldBites, there are three main topical categories, which tie to the three lines of business: recipes, catering, and ethnic dishes. Write down every relevant keyword under each category you find. For WorldBites ethnic dishes, the first terms that come to mind are the obvious ones: ethnic dishes chinese food ethiopian food french food german food hawaiian food

indian food italian food jamaican food japanese food mexican food

middle eastern food native american food scottish food thai food

In compiling an extensive list of keywords, consider which ones will or won’t make good keywords. For instance, using dish instead of food with the various ethnicities (chinese, french, german) does not make a good keyword. If you are in doubt about whether to use a specific keyword, run a Google search on it and look at the first page of results. For the keyword dish, the first page of results has nothing to do with food. Expand the list by including plurals and synonyms for each word or phrase on your initial list. By building on the initial group of keywords above, WorldBites gleaned more keywords (see next page). An important note here: don’t spend time capitalizing your keyword terms. Our system recognizes words and phrases, not their capitalization, so capitalizing requires extra effort you don’t need to make.

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The expanded keyword list for Chinese food looks like this:

authentic chinese cuisine broccoli stir fry chinese beef chinese broccoli chinese chicken chinese cooking chinese cuisine chinese dim sum chinese duck chinese dumpling chinese eggplant chinese food chinese fried rice chinese noodles chinese pork chinese food chinese rice

chinese salad chinese shrimp chinese soup chinese tofu chinese vegetable kung pao beef kung pao chicken kung pao sauce kung pao shrimp kung pao tofu mandarin chicken mandarin food peking duck pork stir fry potstickers shrimp stir fry spring rolls

stir fried rice stir fried vegetables stir fry asparagus stir fry beef stir fry chicken stir fry chinese food stir fry cooking stir fry pork stir fry recipe stir fry rice stir fry sauce stir fry shrimp stir fry tofu stir fry vegetables vegetable stir fry vegetarian stir fry won ton soup

Next, expand the list for each of your keywords. The expanded list for WorldBites adds up to more than 200 keywords for ethnic dishes, another 350 for recipes, and around 75 for catering – in all, more than 600 keywords and phrases. Finally, try our Keyword Suggestion Tool, www.google.com/keywords, which may provide even more terms you will want to consider. No matter how limited your campaign is, it’s very important to compile and expand your keywords in all of these ways first. Then you can review and tailor your list. But in the beginning, it pays to go deep and wide.

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Step 2: Target Now it’s time to target these keywords using Google’s keyword matching options. These enable you to pinpoint ad delivery so your ads reach people precisely when they are searching for what you have to offer. ����� ��� ������ �����

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Broad Match automatically expands your keyword list by testing and adding relevant synonyms, related phrases, and plurals. This expansion provides greater ad coverage without having to generate an exhaustive keyword list.

Broad Match By default, Google sets all keywords to “broad match,” meaning that WorldBites ads for french food would be triggered by search terms containing the words french and food regardless of their order. So a WorldBites ad could appear next to search results for junk food french fries or french food in sanfrancisco. Ads will also automatically show for such expanded keyword matches as plurals and relevant variations (foods, cuisine). Phrase Match By putting quotation marks around a keyword phrase (“french food”), ads appear on searches with french followed by food. Now we see all the searches for french food, french food dishes, or any other possible combination. But we would not reach people who type french fry food or french cuisine and food – the ad does not appear if the search contains any other terms between french and food.

Exact Match By adding brackets around a keyword [french food] you are specifying an exact match: your ad appears only when someone searches for the phrase french food without any other words before or after, and with french and food only in that order. This type of matching is especially recommended for single-word keywords. Negative Match We can also use negative matching to eliminate certain searches that may be irrelevant. To do this, we enter keywords french food and added a -free, -calories, -pictures. This gives us all those searching for french food and all word combinations including french food, but not those who searched for free french food, french food calories or french food photos.

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Step 3: Scrub After creating, expanding and targeting your list of keywords, it’s time to refine it. To do this, include all the relevant synonyms and variations on your core themes, and then eliminate what’s irrelevant. Eliminating Irrelevant Keywords Irrelevant keywords are those triggering results that don’t include what your customers are searching for. For example, a Google search on the keyword phrase french dish brings up more results for dish towels than anything else – and no food items. Adding Synonyms and Colloquialisms After selecting keywords that describe each of the WorldBites businesses, the next step is to add words describing the product offerings in general, with phrases like ethnic foods, ethnic dishes, and ethnic cuisine. Next, consider some common colloquial phrases, such as hors-d’oeuvres and appetizers, and the ever-popular finger foods. A good source for these variations is a thesaurus. Adding Misspellings It’s important to add common misspellings to the keyword list too. WorldBites, for example, may want to add hours dourves to the list in addition to the correct spelling, hors-d’oeuvres. It’s important to note that generic words (of, and, or, the) are ignored by the system. As for punctuation in keywords, in most cases it is considered a single space. For example, hors-d’oeuvres is the same as hors d’oeuvres, and that’s the same as hors d oeuvres. However, hors doeuvres is a different (two-word) keyword. After this exercise, our list of keywords is fairly long. That’s OK, because WorldBites (and you) pay only for clicks and not number of keywords. WorldBites can also specify a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) for each clickthrough. What’s more, some keywords are a lot less expensive than others. The next step is to create order out of this potential keyword chaos.

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Step 4: Group You’ve already created different “buckets” for your words based on your major product lines. Now it’s time to do even more refined and granular grouping into thematic categories, which are called Ad Groups. Organizing and grouping keywords is crucial, because you have to write ad copy (creative) targeted to each group. Ad Groups also make it much easier to manage your campaigns and overall account. In the case of WorldBites, it’s best to create separate campaigns for WorldBites.com, WorldBites Recipes, and WorldBites@Work. Each campaign, in turn, includes several Ad Groups. Because you can use Google technology to target a campaign to a geographical region, campaigns enable you to target your message more specifically. They also make your account more scalable by enabling you to add more keywords and creatives as you evolve your effort. You may recall one of WorldBites’ goals for its e-commerce business: to have 30 haggis orders for Robert Burns’ birthday celebration. We begin by grouping keywords around this term, using these suggested guidelines: 1. Identify the main themes and products in your keyword list, and group keywords accordingly 2. Place synonyms together in the same group 3. Place misspellings together Here’s how this plays out for the Scottish category. Ad Group #1 Correct spelling: scottish food, scottish fare, scottish cuisine, food of scotland, celtic food, celtic fare, celtic cuisine, gaelic food, gaelic fare, gaelic cuisine, highland food, highland fare, caledonian cuisine, caledonian food, caledonian fare Ad Group #2 Misspellings: scotish fare, scotish cuisine, galic food, galic fare, hiland food, hiland fare, caledonia food, caldonian cuisine, gaylic fare, gealic food

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Specific haggis category: Ad Group #3 Correct spelling: buy haggis, haggis dinner, tinned haggis, canned haggis Ad Group #4 Misspellings: hagis, haggiss, haggess, haggies, hagiss To best target your creative to every keyword, it’s beneficial to create a single Ad Group for all of the like words. For example, group all of the misspellings of haggis into a single Ad Group. Organizing keywords this way enables you to write haggisspecific creative, instead of more general copy. Which misspellings you want to choose to form Ad Groups is your judgment call, based on the importance of each keyword category and the time you have to allot to this exercise. Once all of WorldBites’ keywords (for all the product lines) are organized into Ad Groups and campaigns, it’s time to begin work on the ad copy.

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Worksheet: Selecting Keywords The basis of an effective AdWords program is picking the right keywords. This is best done using a simple four-step process: Expand, Target, Scrub, and Group.

Expand the list to include as many words as possible. A. What are the key themes for your site and the products or services you want to promote?

B. What are the most relevant keywords that describe your site, your products and services? List as many as you can.

C. What are synonyms for the keywords you already have listed? Add plurals for each word.

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D. List all of your brand and product names.

E. When you checked your current keywords on Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool, www.google.com/keywords, what else was suggested? Add those which are most relevant.

F. When you searched on Google to find related terms, what additional suggestions appear? List all of the most relevant.

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Aim for precision with keyword matching options. A. Which keywords would benefit from Broad Match, where your ad would appear for all searches containing those words or related terms?

B. Which keywords would benefit from Exact Match, where your ad would appear only for searches containing those specific words in that exact order?

C. Which keywords would benefit from Phrase Match, where your ad would appear for all searches containing those words used in that exact order?

D. Which words would benefit from Negative Match, where your ad would not appear for any searches containing those words?

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Scrub (refine) your keyword list. A. What are all the synonyms and related terms for your keyword? Think beyond the obvious. How might your customers ask for your product or service?

B. What are colloquial ways of describing your product? Think of the different geographic regions you want to reach.

C. What are some common misspellings of your keywords? (Don’t include those that have an entirely different meaning.)

D. From your list, which words or terms don’t relate directly to your product? (To decide whether or not to remove a keyword, check the term by searching on Google.com to be safe. If the majority of the search results on the first page do not relate to your site, don’t include that term.)

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Group the keywords in thematic ad clusters. A. What are the main themes in your keyword list? Group your keywords accordingly.

B. What are the acronyms in your list? Put all of the similar ones into individual groups.

C. Separate your misspelled keywords from the other words. Group all the various misspellings of the same word together.

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chapter 3

Developing Ads With the right keywords in hand, WorldBites can develop ad copy, or creative. Google AdWords enables advertisers to examine clickthrough data for each creative. So the key is to constantly test new variations and see which ones really work. Generally, we recommend running two to four creatives per Ad Group. WorldBites has three different creatives for haggis.

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Focus on benefits The initial WorldBites ad referred to a rather broad benefit, “finger-licking good”. (Admittedly, the benefits of haggis may not be too obvious.) Here’s the creative:

This ad didn’t deliver a satisfactory clickthrough rate. Here are more precise benefits WorldBites can honestly state: • Authentic • Fresh • Easy to order

• Quick delivery • Great quality

Perhaps you can see why this ad can yield a better response.

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Shape ads around keywords Google offers “dynamic keyword insertion,” a tool which automatically inserts your keywords into your ads. Because it enables you to insert keywords into each creative, they are even more relevant to every search. And by featuring each keyword in boldface, the insertion tool highlights the search term in the ad. When creating ads, type your keyword phrases within curly brackets. Taking Ad Group #1 as an example, the keywords are: scottish food, scottish fare, scottish cuisine, food of scotland, celtic food, celtic fare, celtic cuisine, gaelic food, gaelic fare, gaelic cuisine, highland food, highland fare, caledonian cuisine, caledonian food, caledonian cuisine All of these terms share the basic concept of “Scottish cuisine,” so that’s what the ad copy should reference. Dynamic keyword insertion is especially helpful for managing large groups of keywords and variations of ads. Here’s how dynamic keyword insertion would treat these keyword terms: {Keyword: Caledonian food} Wide Selection of Dishes. Fast Delivery – Order Now! {KeyWord: Gaelic Fare} Gourmet Dishes – Fast Delivery. Fresh & Authentic. Order Now. Using this tool, consider what you’d like to capitalize (or not) in individual ads. Using the keyword corporate catering, for example, you can vary the keywords with lower case, single initial cap, or multiple initial caps: {Keyword: corporate catering} will appear as corporate catering {Keyword: Corporate catering} will appear as Corporate catering {KeyWord: Corporate Catering} will appear as Corporate Catering Inserted keywords must adhere to 25 characters or fewer on Line 1 of the ad. For keywords longer than 25 characters (traditional caledonian cuisine), enter a shorter default keyword {caledonian cuisine}, which is what the ad will show.

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When using dynamic keyword insertion, make sure your inserted keywords conform to editorial guidelines. The most common errors are misspelling, the use of superlatives, and introducing keywords that are too long.

Get action One of the most powerful tools in marketing is the “call to action,” which is designed to entice the customer to take an immediate action at that moment. You may remember that the WorldBites Recipes group wants people to download recipes. But their first ad didn’t include that call to action:

After watching this ad perform moderately well, they tried a more direct approach:

With millions of ads appearing daily on Google, we’ve noticed that when advertisers tell visitors what to do at a given site, they are more likely to follow directions – to click. The call to action sets the users’ expectations and provides great transition between the ad and the site. When this revised ad started running with the phrase “download for free,” people clicked on the ad.

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Observe the AdWords editorial guidelines Google AdWords ads are simple but powerful. Here’s the essential anatomy of each ad:

Line 1: HEADLINE 25 characters, including spaces, for your company name or ad title; no punctuation Lines 2 and 3: DESCRIPTION 35 characters, including spaces, on each line for your key message and call-to-action Line 4: DISPLAY URL* 35 characters, including spaces, for your display URL (no ad copy in this line)

*URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, most commonly a web page address. The URL you show on your ad does not have to match the URL where your ad delivers people. For example, www.worldbites.com may deliver people to a more specific page, www.worldbites.com/atwork or www.worldbites.com/recipes/ pastry. By setting up the page correctly, you can see which offer or creative visitors are responding to.

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In order to make sure that every ad delivers for every advertiser, Google has ad guidelines. Keep them handy to avoid some of the most common mistakes: 1. Don’t use superlatives (such as best, largest, most). 2. Don’t use excessive punctuation (multiple exclamation or question marks, for example). Google also doesn’t permit the use of an exclamation mark (!) in your headline (Line 1). 3. Don’t use the word “online” in the headline (Line 1). 4. Use standard capitalization. 5. Vary your choice of words within each ad, and avoid repetition of sentences or phrases. 6. Don’t use pop-up or pop-under ads on destination pages. 7. The back button must return users to Google on all destination pages. 8. Any offer stated in the ad must be clearly found within three clicks of the destination page. In applying these rules, consider the elements to reference on each of the three lines of ad text. A headline is the top line of copy in an ad. It can only be 25 characters long and cannot include superlatives, exclamation marks (!), the word “online,” or excessive punctuation (such as ??? or !!). It can include your keywords, as long as those keywords fit with these guidelines. A benefit is what the customer gets from the product or service – everyday low price, free shipping, fresh, genuine. Make sure the benefits actually apply to your customers. The call to action is what you want people to do: buy, order, download, register. Make sure your calls are clear – and that the action you want them to take is enabled on your destination page.

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Worksheet: Developing Your Ads The four keys to the most effective ad creative: include your keywords in the headline; clearly state customer benefits; clearly state the call to action; and test multiple creatives by Ad Group.

Clearly state your benefits. A. What are the unique features of your product or service? Are they credible?

B. What are the key benefits your product or service offers?

C. What features and benefits are most relevant to your customers?

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Include the keyword in your creative. A. Which Ad Groups share a theme? If the description is too long for dynamic keyword insertion, you can still find a keyword to describe it accurately.

B. Are there any misspellings you want to eliminate from this Ad Group?

C. For common misspellings, what generic headlines can you use?

Clearly state your call to action. A. What action do you want people to take when they get to your site?

B. Can they perform that action without having to take extra steps first?

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Test multiple creative. A. What’s another way to state your benefit? Experiment by placing different benefits in the creative. Do this for each Ad Group.

B. What’s another way to state your call to action? Do this for each Ad Group.

C. How else can you experiment with different types of headlines when keywords are too long, or your creative violates AdWords editorial guidelines?

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chapter 4

Creating Destinations If there is ever a time to put yourself in the customer’s seat, that time is the moment when someone clicks on your ad. There’s nothing worse than customers who are ready to buy but can’t, because too many clicks or required actions block the way. As an example, let’s say your ad is similar to this one.

This ad is triggered by a variation of the word haggis. When users click on this ad, they are probably looking to buy haggis. That’s why the destination, or landing, page for this ad should be a page where they can do that. Many advertisers initially make the mistake of requiring people to begin at a registration page or a home page featuring numerous products, not just the one referenced in the ad. Don’t risk customer alienation and traffic drop-off that will occur because of too many obstacles to the action promised in the ad. You can capture registrations for frequent buyers, or have new prospects sign up for newsletters or downloads, but it’s imperative that these steps don’t prevent the customer’s ability to act quickly. After all, that’s what your ad implies.

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Landing Page Guidelines • Keep your original objectives (sales, leads, downloads) in mind. • Refer to specific keywords, offers, and calls to action on your landing pages. • Make your landing page navigation as simple as possible. • Help people get what they want in three clicks or fewer. • Don’t create obstacles that discourage easy sales transactions. • Ensure that people can get back to Google by clicking the back button. • Ensure that you don’t have a pop-up or pop-under on the landing page.

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Worksheet: Creating Destinations A useful destination page is one that’s the most direct single click from the ad itself, so customers arrive ready to take action.

Keep your objectives in mind. A. What precise action do you want people to take after they click on your ad?

B. What information do people need before they can complete this call to action?

C. What is the best way to get people to do what you want?

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Organize your landing page to match your ads. A. What are people looking for when they click on your ad? Using your keyword list as a starting point, write down all of the specific words or phrases they might be seeking.

B. How do you provide a solution, product, or service that answers their need? Group solutions under keyword headings on your landing page.

C. How quickly can you deliver the information searchers need while getting what you need from them? Can they get what they came for in three or fewer clicks?

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chapter 5

Tracking Results Once you have all your objectives, keywords, and ads, even multiple creatives running on Ad Groups on several campaigns, how do you know what’s really working? The best way is to monitor before-and-after metrics. In the WorldBites example, did they meet or exceed their objectives by getting 1,000 people to download recipes in two weeks? Did they get 50 new customers per month at WorldBites.com? And did WorldBites@Work lower its cost-per-acquisition by 30 percent? How about your own campaigns? Thousands of Google advertisers tell us they appreciate the ability to track clicks and conversion data for each keyword and each ad creative within hours of posting. More than ever before, now you can know which keywords and ads draw in customers. Google’s conversion tracking tool as well as third-party tools also help with tracking, so that you can determine such important data as cost-per-acquisition, customer lifetime value and conversion rates. Many advertisers tell us that using Google AdWords leads them to allocate more money to keyword advertising and less to traditional activities that don’t offer the same yield.

Tracking Results Guidelines • Assign unique URLs to each of your keywords. • Track the clickthrough for each ad and keyword, and conversion data for each keyword. • Follow each clickthrough as people navigate your site. Discover which ad and keyword combinations generate the most sales, signups, or other action.

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Worksheet: Tracking Results When tracking results, don’t be satisfied with a one-time measurement. Constantly monitoring clicks and conversions enables you to refine – and enhance – your results immediately. If you don’t constantly review and revise, you’re going to leave money on the table.

Track each keyword and creative. A. How many of your keywords need separate URLs?

B. How do you want to track people who come to a specific URL as they move through a transaction?

Track your results. A. What metrics do you use to reach your goals (conversions, traffic, registrations, orders)? List all that apply.

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B. Which are your top-performing ads?

C. Which are your top-performing keywords?

D. Which ads and keywords lead to the most sales, signups, or other actions?

E. What do you think makes those keywords or ads work?

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chapter 6

Optimizing Again Once everything is in place – ad creative, keywords, ad groups, campaigns, and all the corresponding URLs and landing pages – every Google advertiser can see what‘s working or what needs help. Since there is little cost to making changes, you can keep experimenting until you find what works best for you. We call this optimizing, an ongoing process of tracking and evaluating leads and sales, and then revising keywords and creative to get the most clickthroughs and sales from each ad. By continually optimizing, you can really maximize your return on investment from your AdWords program. Note that Google will disable any ad not delivering at least a 0.5 percent clickthrough, so it pays to scrutinize results regularly in order to optimize. (In the case of broad- and phrase-matched keyword variations, the clickthrough threshhold may be higher.) To make changes, revisit the worksheet on pages 24 – 26 to review the benefits and calls to action for your ineffective creative. And consider changing your keyword matching. Some keywords work better as exact matches, others with phrase match. Sometimes adding a negative match gets great results. Of course, there are always some words that just don’t work, so delete those. As you’ve seen, this is not a one-time exercise. You must continually track results and adapt the creative and keywords to continually improve your performance. Optimizing Guidelines • • • • •

Study what works and what doesn’t. Evaluate your benefits and call to action for each creative. Review ineffective keywords; review creative for effectiveness. Try changing keyword matching for each keyword. Consider changing the structure of your Ad Groups.

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Worksheet: Optimization When tracking results, don’t be satisfied with one piece of data. Constantly tracking and monitoring clickthrough and conversion rates allows you to refine and enhance your results immediately. If you don’t do this, you’re leaving money on the table.

Evaluate each keyword and creative. A. What are your highest-performing ads?

B. Why do these successful ads work?

C. What are your lowest-performing ads?

D. What are your highest-performing keywords?

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E. Why do these keywords work?

F. What is it about those keywords or creative that seem to work?

G. What are your lowest performing keywords?

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Revise keywords and creative. A. How can you better state the benefits of your product or service?

B. How can you improve your call to action?

C. What can you do to refine your keywords?

D. What other variations of your best keywords can you try?

The Maximum Effect If you follow the suggestions and examples throughout this guide, you’ll make the most of your Google AdWords account. Enjoy the process – and the results.

© 2003 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be 37 trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.